So you want to do animal rescue. You want to change the world one dog at a time.
What a noble and fantastic undertaking!

So you find a dog that needs rescuing. You take the dog in. The dog has seen horrible abuse, neglect, he's never known love or a good meal. He may be fearful and needs to learn to trust people again or he may just appreciate you so much that you have a loving, devoted friend for the rest of his life. Either way you win. In the end this dog lives happily ever after. Right?

Well, let me tell you a couple stories then. And just so you know we still consider them success stories, which I will explain later.

First is Bruno...Bruno is a deaf black lab. His owners did not know how to deal with a deaf dog so they used harsh punishment to try to teach him. They tried for a couple years and then Bruno got put on a chain in the back yard and basically forgotten for another year. Finally they decided get rid of him. They just "didn't have time for him" and he was a a great dog but "he needed more than they could give".

Bruno came into our group and went to one of our people who is a fabulous dog trainer. She worked and worked with him. Things seemed to be going ok. Then Bruno went after her company one day. She had to crate him..but she didn't give up. She socialized him and taught him hand signals. He seemed to be coming around well. Then one day I went over to her house (which I do several times a week) And Bruno knew me well. For some reason this time Bruno flew out the door and savagely attacked me. Fortunately I was wearing a heavy coat so the damage was done to it rather than myself. It took two people aside from myself to stop Bruno. At this point..it was realized that despite the months put into Bruno..he was unpredictable to an extreme. Bruno had become a dangerous dog. It was a hard decision but Bruno had to be put down.

Cole.....oh Cole..she was such a pretty thing. A little black and white amstaff. She was found wandering the streets in a gang ridden part of town. She was about 6 months old and already wore the scars of fighting and abuse. She was emaciated, she hung her head, her tail didn't wag. When she was found it took us months to get her looking healthy....but we could not get rid of the emotional scars. She came to love us..socializing at first went well, she trained easily. Now she met you in the morning with a wagging tail and bright eyes. With any of the pitty breeds it takes a long time to find them homes..we screen harshly and not alot of people are knocking down our doors. So Cole was with us until she was a year and a half old. We noticed a subtle change in Cole. She had always been around kids and dogs....She was suddenly ferociously dog aggressive. Then it got scary. Cole decided she did not like children.
First it was an occasional growl. Then she began meeting children with a snarl. We had her checked to make sure there was no possible physical problem causing this..nothing. Cole now had to be kept away from almost everyone. No kids, cats, other dogs. We had to be cautious about new people. At this point we knew...Cole had to be put to sleep. She was unadoptable and becoming daily more aggressive.

But don't look at these as failures. This is how our group sees such cases. These dogs were given a chance. They left the world knowing love, knowing there were humans that cared about them. We did everything we could do for them. They were restored to health physically. And when they joined the dogs at rainbow Bridge..they were restored emotionally, which for whatever reason, we could not do.

To do rescue work you cannot just hang on to dogs that are this damaged. They are a liability to future rescues and themselves. Regardless of how short their lives were though..they WERE rescued. They did not die in a ditch of starvation, they did not end their lives in the hands of cruelty.

Bless you if you take on rescue. And never doubt you did all you could do even if things go wrong. Just as there are humans that are never fit for society there are dogs that are the same way. And there are no prisons or mental institutions for them. Just those of us who understand this and can end their suffering with love.

Very Eloquently said Violet. its sad but true. we had a female named Minny, she was not even 2 years old, she had god knows how many litters. she came into rescue malnurished, hungry, scared, abused. one foster home worked with her for a long time. they couldnt handle her after a while, she started threatening the man in the house. she came to me. i get the ones that are questionable. i worked with her for a long time. she started to come around , liked my husband. was dog aggressive, so she never met my crew. after a while, we had a potential adopter for her. mind you, she was around children, adults, etc. she met my folks and her tail went a mile a minute. the potential adopters wanted a companion. we scheduled a meeting. minny was brought to a house belonging to a board member for the meeting. the woman had mirrors in her home that were from floor to ceiling. when she saw her reflection she went crazy, then turned on the 10 year old standing in the kitchen . luckily, nothing happened, she stopped in front of her, but was barking, snarling, hackles up. not good. after that, she ran upstairs , i went to get her and as i was coming down the stairs w/ her she raised her hackles at me . it was decided she was not adoptable. after months and months of work with her, i was devastated. yet, we knew what had to be done. she went peacefully with me holding her the entire time, i would not let her go without love .

then there was another female, this one a little older. she was not pure, she was a powerhouse. she was extremely high prey drive, she tried to dive out my window in my house over a squirrel . very dog aggressive. she went after me on a couple of occasions. she too was evaluated by us board members and after months of working with her she also was not to be adopted out.

yes, they were saved. they were saved from whatever horror they had before RESCUE came into their lives. they lived with love, knew love , even if they didnt understand it at that point or were too far gone they had it at least for a little while.

it is the hardest thing to do.

To those in rescue, its a special person that can do this. All rescue people should be commended for what they do. Rescueing the unknown dog/cat/ animal. Trying to work with them letting them know not all humans are that bad. some are saveable, some are not. but at least they ALL come into rescue and feel love , some for the first time ever.